Omaha, Nebr. (May 23, 2026) – On Pups at the Pitch Night, Union Omaha downed Chattanooga Red Wolves thanks to a pair of second-half goals.
Sergio Ors Navarro notched his second of the season while Allen Gavilanes found his first for the Owls, both by being in the right place at the right time when the home team was pushing for a way through a typically gritty Red Wolves defense.
“You just have to keep your head down and grind,” said Ryen Jiba afterwards. “Playing a counterattacking team like [Chattanooga], it’s tough when it comes to the transitional game, so being able to have the defenders’ and midfield’s trust, that’s all that matters. Once we’re all together as one team, no one can stop us, and we executed that well today.”
The match flow… never quite existed in the first half, with a string of fouls and Chattanooga player going down with injuries. They would even need to burn an early substitution to keep relatively healthy and to keep up with an Omaha team that came out of the gates looking to rebound from a harsh loss to Louisville the prior weekend.
The Owls moved the ball around crisply, but mainly in a U-shape; any pass to the top of the box saw the ball forced right back out of that space with the center thoroughly walled off by the visitors. By the time a scoreless halftime rolled around, the statistical breakdown was typical for this matchup: 69% possession for Omaha, 85% to 65% in passing, but 7-6 in shots as the Red Wolves constantly looked to hit in transition. A solid effort by the Owls’ midfield and defense stemmed most of those tides before they became real opportunities though.
Said Sami Guediri, whose presence in both defense and midfield has been a constant for Omaha this season, “I just try to give what I can for the team. Whatever role they need me to play, I try my best to connect the pieces, get us going forward while giving us nice cover in the back. Results like this keep everyone happy and keep us pushing, and we’ll just try to keep it going.”
It was one of those transitional opportunities for Union Omaha that gave them the advantage after the break. A ball into a marauding Kempes Tekiela let him slide into the box before sliding it over to Ors Navarro on his right. The Spaniard took a perfect touch to put the ball out front of him, and last season’s top scorer for the Owls found the far corner to snatch the lead.
They would keep pushing from there, looking to put the game to bed, and while it took a while, the 82nd minute yielded that breakthrough. The move kicked into overdrive with a textbook 1-2, Pato Botello Faz on the other end of a wall pass that let Ryen Jiba storm into the box. While both of his shots were saved, the second squeaked through Ricardo Jérez, and Allen Gavilanes was Johnny-on-the-spot to stab it home. Gavilanes, a loanee from Indy Eleven, had brought some flair to the match from the moment he was subbed on, and found a reward for his attacking impetus late on.
The result keeps Union Omaha atop the table with 22 points on a 7-2-1 record, and extends their home unbeaten run in the league to 17 matches.
“Love the response from the guys after a disappointing defeat at home last Sunday,” said Head Coach Vincenzo Candela. “I love the response we had in the second half; it looked like a complete team performance, and that’s our identity.”
Union Omaha finishes a jam-packed May with two matches this upcoming week. First, they’ll venture out east to play New York Cosmos for the first time on Wednesday, May 27th at 6pm. After that, they’ll return home to square off against FC Naples in a 2025 playoff rematch for Cancer Awareness Night, presented by XCancer. That will be Saturday, May 30th at 7pm, and includes a game-worn jersey auction for charity. Tickets and ticket packages for upcoming matches are on sale now.
ABOUT UNION OMAHA
Union Omaha, the 2021 and 2024 USL League One Champions, is the premier professional soccer team in the state of Nebraska. USL League One is a United States Soccer Federation-sanctioned professional men’s soccer league that occupies the third tier of the American soccer landscape, below USL Championship (tier two) and the newly announced top-tier USL Premier, launching in 2028. Union Omaha will play its 2026 USL League One home matches at Morrison Stadium in downtown Omaha. The team is led by Chief Operating Officer Alexis Boulos in the front office and by Head Coach Vincenzo Candela on the pitch.
